South Korean Psyop Against North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Command of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) in an unknown location in North Korea in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency. Reuters/KCNA

If this isn’t a strategic Psychological Operation against North Korea, I don’t know what is.

A very public announcement by a South Korean Lieutenant General, where he admits, in the Business Insider article, that South Korea wants to make Kim Jong Un fear for his life.

It’s out of the ordinary for a senior government leader to say publicly they were working on a plan to assassinate a foreign head of state. But there’s an interesting reason behind it: The South is trying to freak out its northern neighbor and get them to the negotiating table, instead of further developing nuclear weapons.

“The best deterrence we can have, next to having our own nukes, is to make Kim Jong-un fear for his life,” retired South Korean Lt. Gen. Shin Won-sik told The Times.

South Korea expects to have a 2,000 to 4,000 man unit ready late this year with equipment designed to be stealthy.

The negotiation tables don’t seem to work, neither do sanctions, harsh words, or public censure.

Doing a thumbnail analysis as a former Special Forces soldier who worked in special operations, the chances of the mission being compromised are medium to high. They would have to be inserted very quietly and in a way never done before. A glider, a ram-parachute, hang glider, or wingsuit launched from 40,000 feet or more near the 12-mile limit, for instance, is probably their best option due to their tiny radar signature. Insertion by submarine might be too risky, and it’s been done before. Insertion from the Chinese border is good but it’s a long way to Pyongyang. The coastline on the East Sea is swiss cheese, but it’s even further from Pyongyang. Using a North Korean tunnel to go north is possible, but probably very risky and they would emerge in a highly patrolled area. Then, if they get to Pyongyang, there is the little problem of finding the rat bastard. Like Saddam Hussein, Kim rotates where he sleeps. If there is even the slightest chance of a compromise, he would surely be moved to a more secure, probably underground location. If they insert in multiple ways at one time, the chances of success increase but the chances of compromise also increase.

The political and practical considerations are enormous. Many South Koreans do not want unification, the two peoples are no longer one culture, they claim, the two Koreas no longer have that in common after 67+ years. The cost to South Korea to rebuild North Korea make the German reunification look inexpensive.

The repercussions for using such a unit to take out the North Korean leader will immediately result in retaliation by North Korea, but it is an option.